Stop the trade of wild parrots!
Rosemary Low’s article "The Wild parrot trade: stop it!" first appeared in the November 2002 edition of Pstittascene.
Below we copy an extract of her original text. A French translation is available here.
Introduction:
In Europe we are not yet civilised or concerned enough to follow the example set by the USA in 1993 when the Wild Bird Conservation Act became law. It prohibited the importation of all wild-caught parrots except in certain rare circumstances. I would strongly endorse the importance of this Act and the need for similar legislation to be passed in Europe and elsewhere. At present in the UK there are double standards. In most circumstances, trapping of our native birds is illegal, as is taking their eggs or even disturbing them at their nest, and can result in a prison sentence. Yet we legally import thousands of wild-caught birds from other countries.
The World Parrot Trust is campaigning for a ban on the importation of wild-caught parrots into the European Union.
Click on the image to access the site: http://www.parrots.org/
The trade in wild-caught parrots is cruel, wasteful and unnecessary. The arguments in favour of continued trade, often heard in Europe, are all invalid and based on misconceptions. They include the following.
Many breeders state that “new blood” is necessary to maintain the rarer species in aviculture. I maintain that past history shows that enormous numbers of certain species have not resulted in them being established, simply because they are not “commercial”. One example is that of the Orange-flanked or Grey-cheeked Parakeet (Brotogeris pyrrhopterus) from western Ecuador and extreme northern Peru. It was heavily exploited during the 1980s before which it was abundant in the wild in its limited area of distribution. Then from 1983 to 1988 at least 60,000 birds were exported. Most of these had been taken from nests and hand-reared. They were very popular as pets in the USA. Despite the tens of thousands exported, it is now a rare bird in aviculture, with probably fewer than ten breeders in the USA. Last year I made extensive enquiries and advertised in several avicultural magazines in the UK but I was unable to locate a single bird. If a species cannot be established in aviculture when 60,000 were exported during a five-year period, the argument that trade in wild-caught parrots should continue to provide unrelated birds for breeders, is not very convincing. The total population of the Grey-cheeked Parakeet, which is now classified as Endangered, is estimated to be only about 15,000 birds - just one quarter of the number exported in that five year period. In this case trade had a lasting impact on its numbers and, due to deforestation, there is now no possibility for recovery.
Trapping supports local communities: FALSE
Some purchasers of wild-caught parrots purport to believe that they are contributing towards the financial support of local communities. In fact catching parrots makes very small sums of money for trappers or anyone else in the country of origin who needs the income. In Mexico, Katherine Renton is studying the Lilaccrowned or Finsch’s Amazon (Amazona finschi) where the trade in the native Amazons is highly detrimental. In the "exporting countries" paragraph of her article, she lays to rest the myth that it is the poor people who benefit from trapping parrots. Most of the profits of the parrot trade go to already wealthy middlemen in the importing countries.
Breeding contributes towards conservation: FALSE
Some breeders claim that by breeding the rarer parrots, which are still being imported from the wild, often illegally, they are contributing to their conservation. In the UK there was an unfortunate case of the breeder who obtained wild-caught Lear's Macaws (Anodorhynchus leari), a critically endangered species, and was imprisoned as a result. He claimed that his sole aim was the conservation of the species. One weekly avicultural magazine received many letters in his support, with the opinion that his sentence was harsh and unjustified. They were apparently unable to comprehend that his action, and the actions of others who buy such birds, are the Reason why the species is critically endangered.
A major reason why private breeders cannot participate in breeding programmes for endangered species is the disease-risk. In the past couple of decades viral diseases have had a very serious impact on parrot collections worldwide. These diseases are the result of mass export of wild-caught parrots, where birds are held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. Wild parrots might have lived with these viruses for eons but in times of stress they surface. Also, when birds from different continents are kept in the same premises, they encounter viruses to which they have no resistance, with fatal consequences. I refer to outbreaks of psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD), proventricular dilatation disease, Pacheco's disease and others. Many of them surface in breeders' aviaries, no matter how good the conditions are. The high incidence of disease in collections where various parrot species are kept means that releasing captive-bred birds poses an unacceptable risk to the wild population. This is why breeding and release programs of endangered species must be in situ, such as those for the Echo Parakeet (Psittacula eques) on Mauritius and the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) on Puerto Rico.
Such breeders also claim that it is important to have captive stocks of the rarer species for restocking wild habitats when a species becomes extinct. The fact that hand-reared birds are usually poor candidates for release is another reason why private breeders are unlikely to participate in the conservation of endangered parrots. Although many are bred in captivity, most are not parent-reared, in order to maximise production (and income).
Pairs can nest again: FALSE
Some people in favour of continuing trade claim that if the young of a pair are removed from the nest, the pair will nest again. Data collected between 1979 and 1999 from investigators conducting ecological or behavioural studies of neotropical parrots showed that overall the poaching rate was 30% (Wright and Toft, 2001). If a nest failed, nesting by pairs (various species) in the same year was extremely rare: only 1% of pairs nested again.
The cruelty of trapping:
Trapping methods are inhumane.
Tens of thousands of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) are trapped each year for reasons of trade. Those in doubt should watch the World Parrot Trust’s video Where the Wild Greys Are by clicking on the image to the right.
Message of the World Parrot Trust
Can you help bring a stop to the disappearance of the African Grey Parrot? Once widespread throughout most of Africa, the Grey Parrot is now threatened throughout much of its natural habitat.
Wild populations are threatened due to habitat destruction, poaching, capturing for the flourishing domestic and international trade, and territory disputes over the use of natural resources.
Why do we need your help?
WPT has helped save more than 3,000 grey parrots from the wild bird trade.
World Parrot Trust has worked with its local branch in Africa and other NGOs and actors to:
- end the trade of captured wild African parrots
- rehabilitate and free confiscated birds
- encourage sustainable solutions to parrot trapping
- reintegrate wild populations in suitable areas of their former distribution
- raise awareness of the deplorable plight of wild grey parrots
This video demonstrates the appalling treatment and rough handling of Greys being trapped in nets in the Congo, including many adult birds. This is the worst and most wasteful kind of trade because many adult parrots will die of stress after enduring days or weeks or months of intense fear.
Trapping wild adults should no longer be permitted because:
- Many can never adapt to a life in captivity. They do not make suitable pets and are soon unwanted.
- The breeding population is decimated and
- Trapping deprives some mated birds of their partners and probably results in chicks starving to death in the nest.
The trade in chicks removed from nests is equally cruel. One dealer in the Argentine Chaco stated that the average number of young Blue-fronted Amazons (Amazona aestiva) that passed through his hands in one year was 7,000 and that in 1973 he fed 13,500 chicks. As many as 300 chicks could be fed in an hour!
An infamous piece of film, shown on television many times, shows chicks of this species being fed and over-fed. Those which were over-fed died, probably almost instantly, and were thrown aside. *(1).
*(1) Note of the ASAP: these chicks were fed with a large syringe filled with a corn mash. The baby was "full" at once; dead chicks were tossed in a large trashcan found in the dealer’s courtyard.
Trapping eliminates populations:
Trade alone, or trade in conjunction with habitat destruction (as in the case of Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii)) can and have, resulted in extinction. A number of formerly common parrot species familiar to us all have suffered catastrophic declines due to trapping. In Venezuela, for example, the Yellow-fronted Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala)*(2) is the most preferred of all parrot species due to its linguistic skills.
Desenne and Strahl (1991) thought that it might “reach threatened status within Venezuela due to the huge numbers of this species that are captured for the national and international trade”.
The Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea sulphurea) is one of the 15 Critically Endangered Parrots of the world - solely due to over-trapping for the pet trade. Numbers of parrots trapped are enormous. A study in the late 1990s of the international trade in parrots listed by CITES found that 1.2 million parrots were exported between 1991 and 1996, with the majority of those birds coming from the neotropics.
These figures are thought to be a gross underestimate of the actual numbers of birds taken from the wild because they exclude pre-export mortality, which has been estimated to reach 60% of all birds trapped or taken from nests. International trade figures do not account for the substantial illegal international trade and the equally serious domestic trade. When these factors are taken into consideration, the number of chicks taken from the wild in the neotropics was estimated at 400,000 to 800,000 per year from 1982 to 1986.
*(2) Note of the ASAP: since 15 November 2002, this species is listed in the Appendix A/1 of the Washington Convention.
Lack of nesting sites is depressing populations in many areas, often as a result of selective felling of the larger trees. However, researchers in the Argentine Chaco who studied the impact of trade on the Blue-fronted Amazon there, estimated that approximately 100,000 of its nest trees were destroyed or damaged between 1981 and 1989 by poachers when they stole chicks from nests (Bucher et al, 1992).
The Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has had some impact – but not enough - on controlling export. This is the only global treaty designed to protect endangered fauna and flora from excessive trade.
According to the degree of threat which dealing in wild-caught birds would impose on a species, it is listed under three Appendices.
On Appendix I are the species threatened with extinction on which trade would have a catastrophic effect.
On Appendix II are species that could be threatened if export was not regulated effectively. Trade in these species is permitted if it is sustainable and the specimens were obtained legally.
Also on Appendix II are the offspring – but not those of the first generation - of species on Appendix I.*(3).
Appendix III concerns species endangered on the territory of one or more countries and which require a specific regulation and co-operation of other parties to the convention to control their trade.
The treaty was signed in March 1973. On June 6 1981 nearly all members of the parrot family, excluding those listed in Appendix I, were placed on Appendix II. At the time of writing, 136 countries were signatories to CITES.*(4) Unfortunately, some countries that trade in enormous numbers of wild-caught parrots are not signatories. Parrots on Appendix II continue to be trapped and exported although no research has been carried out on most species and it is not known whether trade is sustainable.
Annual quotas, such as those established by the governments of Guyana and Argentina, were apparently not based on research and might have been, or still are, in excess of sustainable trade levels.
*(3) Note of the ASAP: In France, these births are validated with a certificate of the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development.
*(4) Note of the ASAP: By August 2002, 160 countries had signed this treaty.